Tales from the Trail

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who just returned from Afghanistan, is making another trip — to a baseball game.

The nation’s top law enforcement official will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at tonight’s game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

The 59-year-old Holder, who grew up in New York City, is a longtime fan of the Mets, and a big baseball as well as a basketball fan.

He just returned to Washington from a one-day visit to Kabul, where he met President Hamid Karzai as well as senior Afghan and U.S. officials to discuss fighting corruption and other law enforcement matters.

Tonight’s baseball game will be the first time that Holder will make the ceremonial first pitch as attorney general. No word on whether he is practicing his fastball.

President Barack Obama was very much the suffering Chicago White Sox fan on Monday when the New York Yankees visited the White House to be honored for winning the World Series championship in 2009. That crown was the team’s 27th, by far the most in Major League Baseball.

The team that comes second, the St. Louis Cardinals, has only 10 titles.  And Obama’s favorite White Sox have won only three times, most recently in 2005, and that was their first championship since 1917.

Obama was a gracious host to the New Yorkers. He praised their history and the character of the team’s players.

It's one thing they can agree on... baseball. 

Major League Baseball is bringing all five living U.S. presidents together at next week's 80th All-Star Game.

President Barack Obama and his predecessors George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter will appear in a 7-minute video presentation as part of the U.S. sports league's all-star festivities on Tuesday in St. Louis. Baseball called it the first time all living U.S. presidents would participate in a ceremony at a sporting event.

The video address will be part of a pre-game ceremony honoring 30 men and women being recognized by MLB and People magazine for acts of giving and service to their communities. Each person represents one of the sport's 30 teams.